Mum Begs Hospital To 'Learn From Mistakes' After Baby Son Dies

A heartbroken mum has asked a hospital to learn from their mistakes after her 10-month-old son Thomas died in their care on Christmas Eve 2011.

Nicky Whittaker, 42, of Skelmersdale, lost her baby at Alder Hey hospital after he had three open heart operations, and while a Liverpool inquest yesterday ruled that he died from natural causes, his mum told the hearing she thought overdoses of an antibiotic damaged his health.

Baby Thomas was born with Down's Syndrome and had a severe heart condition. Coroner André Rebello told the court if Thomas had not undergone the surgery he would have died sooner.

Doctors had already admitted they had given the baby two overdoses 12 hours apart on August 16 last year.

The clinical director of critical services at the hospital said he appreciated the family may have lost confidence in the care the unit provided, and said the mistakes made were 'extremely disappointing.' He added that medics went through all possible complications and carried out tests in response to the overdose, but Thomas had a series of other problems due to his heart condition.

His distraught mum told reporters she did not want to 'get anyone into trouble' but that lessons had to be learned from her son's death.

The coroner found Thomas died from bronchial pneumonia and multiple organ failure associated with heart disease, with Down syndrome being recorded as a complicating factor.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Alder Hey said: "We immediately launched a full internal investigation and actions have since been put in place to ensure a similar incident does not happen again," adding that their "thoughts and heartfelt sympathy are with the family at this difficult time."

Such a sad story and a terrible series of events for the family to go through...